Benefits management approach

Archive - this information is for reference only and no longer maintained.

This page relates to the 2021-24 National Land Transport Programme.

Introduction

Land transport investment is driven by the Government Policy Statement on land transport (GPS) to deliver on strategic priorities and contribute to outcomes for our communities. Identifying the benefits of that investment is important to understand the contribution to outcomes for our communities. Benefits management is therefore vital to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency's management and delivery of the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP).

Purpose and application

We (Waka Kotahi as investor) have developed a benefits management approach to:

• ensure we invest in the things that matter to the government and our community
• enable a consistent way for our partners to communicate the value of proposed investments across the entire planning and funding process
• provide focus on delivering benefits through investment in the land transport system
• encourage the use of the benefits data and information to identify land transport problems
• ensure benefits and their measures are identified and defined clearly at the outset of the funding process and are aligned with the Transport Outcomes Framework and the GPS
• ensure benefits and robust benefits data informs investment decision making (through investment assessment and prioritisation)
• enable robust benefits realisation processes and reporting to show the value that investment through the NLTP is delivering to New Zealand in the short and long term
• enable informed future decisions using the results of the benefits realisation.

The benefits management approach will be applied to all NLTP processes and documents, including regional land transport plans, activity management plans and all improvement business cases, as well as to inform assessment, prioritisation and benefits realisation processes.

From August 2020, all new business cases will be required to use the benefits and measures listed in the benefits framework.

Benefits management approach and framework

The benefits framework provides a consistent set of benefits and measures. The benefits management approach is the application of this consistent set of benefits and measures to all NLTP processes and documents.

The benefits management guidance provides a full description of the benefits framework and how it is applied to NLTP processes and documents.

Benefits management guidance

There will be ongoing updates of the benefits framework to address gaps in data measurement, as well as ongoing updates of the guidelines.

Monetised benefits and costs

The Monetised benefits and costs manual (MBCM) is our guidance for assessing the monetised impacts of proposed investments in land transport. The primary purpose of this manual is to establish consistency, transparency and comparability between options/activities to aid the evaluation of their economic efficiency.

Monetised benefits and costs manual

The MBCM is a replacement of the Economic evaluation manual (EEM). With the introduction of appraisal summary tables (AST) for capturing a wider range of benefits in social cost-benefit analysis, including non-monetisable and monetisable impacts, the MBCM has been refocused to cover only costs and monetised benefits.

Economic evaluation manual

Non-monetised benefits

The Land Transport Benefits Framework measures manual provides measure descriptions and guidance for using each of the quantitative and qualitative measures in the benefits framework. Standard descriptions include mapping relationships between measures and descriptions of centralised data sources where available. Where appropriate, qualitative description has been brought into this manual from the former EEM, and methodologies for analysing and forecasting for qualitative measures are provided.

Land Transport Benefits Framework measures manual 

The first release of this document focuses on the full description of the quantitative measures with centralised data and qualitative measures in new areas in the benefits framework. Ongoing updates will be provided for this manual, expanding the number of fully described measures and improving guidance on developing baselines and forecasts.

Centralised benefits data

The storymap tool that provides access to all currently available centralised benefits data has been converted to the new benefits framework. To access it, please go to storymap.

Storymap(external link)

The Land Transport Benefits Framework measures manual provides further details for each quantitative measure with partial or complete information in the storymap. Where possible, the storymap tool shows spatial benefits information and has data files available for download.

To request access to the centralised benefits storymap, please contact investment.benefits@nzta.govt.nz